So. I have those 10 year old small M-Audio speakers next to my computer and it’s time to upgrade.
I’m new to Roon and thought I could stream on all speakers in the house as long as they are connected. Well, found out that it’s not the case.
Since I already have a Raspberry Pi feeding my living room set I thought I’d add another one in the bedroom (which is also an office). That way I should solve the multiroom play.
Now, I want active speakers (space/convenience etc.) and I short listed the Kef LSX and the Klipsch Fives.
Big issue from almost all reviews with the Fives is the lack of bass EQ. I thought I could solve that using roon EQ.
But I’m not sure that applying EQ to a speaker with an internal DSP will produce more disaster than good. Is anyone doing just that, using roon to EQ active speakers ?
Also I’m annoyed that almost everyone uses the Fives as a soundbar replacement, I want to listen to music.
If the question above leads towards a “don’t do it” I might just go for the LSX fed with PI with an optical hat.
(also looked at the Kanto Tuk but they are hard to find in Europe and I’m worried about after sales)
In fact, I don’t need all the streaming features, a great power speakers set would suffice since I use a raspberry. See, I’m still not sure where to go
Hi. The Fives do have bass EQ - three settings, Bass Cut, Flat, and Dynamic. Although Bass Cut is actually flat (yes it’s confusing).
The Bass Cut setting is relatively new. It should be included with new speakers but if not then you just need to upgrade the firmware (a bit fiddly). It’s the ONLY one to use with music! It may be - stress may be - that other reviews of The Fives didn’t have the Bass Cut EQ available. My conclusions would have been very different had that been the case.
See my Darko review for more info. I was very pleasantly suprised by The Fives and tested them 90% with music. I also used Roon on an RPi4, with no HAT but with an iFi 5V power supply, which was worth the £50 extra. All in all a neat little system
I should add that I haven’t heard the KEF LSX so can’t comment on how they compare. Although they are the obvious alternative.
Thanks for great Darko review. How do you activate Bass Cut once firmware is upgraded? Is it same method as activating Dynamic Bass EQ (holding Sub button on remote) except light flashes 3 times?
Thanks. Still not working, so maybe I need software 5.8? The latest version available on the Klipsch site is 5.7.5–wondering if they retracted 5.8 for some reason. (My firmware is now 1.5.2.)
I read on the Klipsch forum that a lot of people had the same issue, they thought the firmware had been upgraded but it did not. Apparently some had to try quite a few times before it did eventually upgrade.
